Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2005-08-26

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Indian Boarding
Schools
page 5
Oppression -
a constant in lives
UNLESS we
change ft
page 4
Bois Forte candidate
Ed Chavers is one of
six vying for District 1
page 4
White Earth family
grieves for son
shot down by law
enforcement officers
page 4
Time to tell us
what you have
done
page 4
RLTC terminates Mills
By Bill Lawrence
In a special meeting August
24, the Red Lake Tribal Council
unanimously voted to terminate Pat
Mills as Director of Public Safety.
Mills was tenninated for allegedly
disposing of a tribal vehicle and
pocketing the proceeds.
In answer to our inquiry into the
matter, Mills said he had traded
in a vehicle but that he had gotten
tide for the vehicle from Roger
"Bucky" Head and permission to
trade it. He stated he had not acted
illegally. The incident occurred
several years ago. Head served
at the time as executive director
of the Tribal Council.
The vehicle, a van used for drug
enforcement, was traded in for a
passenger car and was reportedly
used by the Mills' for personal use.
Gail Mills, Pat's wife was also terminated from her position as a Red
Lake Gaming Commissioner.
Mills put the car in his own
name. This has been described as
a customary departmental practice
for vehicles used in undercover
work. Eventually the car broke
down and was crushed.
Red Lake Treasurer Darrell Seki
said this incident came to light as
a detail in a 2004 audit. He said
Mills had received $995 in the
trade. He further stated that the
Council had requested the Bureau
of Indian Affairs come in to investigate the matter.
Mills said the funds he obtained
were used by the department for
undercover drug activity, which is
not subject to audit.
Sources say the firing of Mills
is related to Clifford MarteU's dismissal two weeks ago. Martellwas
terminated without the approval of
the full Tribal Council and was denied the right ef appeal. Neither of
the two have been given the opportunity to appear before the council
on their own behalf, to answer the
charges or to face their accusers.
Mills reported that, as of press
time today, he had yet to be officially informed of his dismissal.
The Council summarily terminated
both individuals. It doesn't appear
that either individual was granted
a suspension or benefits pending a
full investigation. The firing of Pat
Mills is the second time the Chairman or the Council has arbitrarily
assumed power over the Public
Safety Commission.
This action puts Red Lake Tribal
law enforcement under the control
of the Tribal Council just as the
Tribal Court is controlled by the
Council. This is a clear violation of
the separation of power principal.
The firings are believed to be
related to drug busting efforts
on the reservation. Mills had
recently signed a cooperative
agreement with a newly created
MILLS to page 5
A year after Buck Jourdain at Red Lake
By Bill Lawrence
In the first few months of 2004
Press/ON did a series of articles
about Red Lake. As a result of
my work with the band and my
observations I became increasingly
concerned about what was going
on.
The first thing that concerned me
was the financial status ofthe band.
I estimated the band was $26-27
million in new debt and that this
situation had developed rather rapidly. In the two or three years prior
to the casino expansion project, the
The materials
that led to these
conclusions were
public documents—
band had gone from a place of relative financial well-being, providing
$4-5 million a year from casino
revenue for needed services, to the
place where all the revenues from
gaming were now going to pay debt
service.
According to financial information presented to the Tribal Council
at the regular meeting August 9,
Red Lake Gaming has not made
any payment to the general fund.
In the Band's 2005 budget, gaming is required to pay the Band
$1,037,736.
I pondered the events that led
to this condition and I pursued all
available leads. A review of official
audits uncovered material that indicated pretty strongly there was, at
the least, mismanagement in ninning
tribal financial matters. I strongly
suspected there was also fraud and
abuse of power as well.
The materials that led to these
Press/0N strongly
suggested the
band invite an
outside, objective
entity to come to
the reservation to
investigate...
conclusions were public documents—audits, memos, pubhc presentations at tribal council meetings
and the action ofthe Tribal Council
itself.
The great debt load grew from a
number of poor decisions, including
the casino expansion project, and the
purchase of the Sunset Resort, the
Super 8 Motel, the Cheney property
JOURDAIN to page 5
Leech Lake
Petitioners at
mercy of BIA
Bemidji, MN—On August
23, 2005, Richard Johnson
and Deborah Geving, spokespersons for the Leech Lake
Petitioners submitted a letter
to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Bemidji, requesting a
Special Election be declared
on the Leech Lake Reservation. They also submitted
a copy of each petition (1)
Chairman George Goggleye,
Jr., (2) District Representative
1, Burton "Luke" Wilson, and
(3) District Representative
3 Donald "Mick" Finn; and
they submitted a copy of the
12 minute video recording of
the event.
The Special Election request
is in response to the Leech
Lake Band of Ojibwe Tribal
Council's failure to act on the
petitions. On August 12, Chairman George Goggleye, Jr. took
charge of the Removal/Recall
Hearing at the Palace Bingo
& Casino and conducted what
appeared to be a Council meeting. Goggleye refused to allow
the Secretary-Treasurer Arthur
"Archie" LaRose speak to the
small crowd and refused to allow the petitioners one moment
to begin the hearing.
The charges were against
Goggleye and District 1 and 3
Representatives, Burton "Luke"
Wilson and Donald "Mick"
Finn.   Instead of a hearing,
BIA to page 5
Update on missing Leech Lake
HIP funds
By Diane White
Cass Lake, MN—Bruce Johnson and his brother, Richard,
attended the August 11, 2005
meeting between the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) officials
from Bemidji and Minneapolis and
the Leech Lake Tribal Council to
discuss Bruce Johnson's letter of
complaint regarding the $81,337
he was awarded in a HIP grant
to provide him with replacement
housing. The meeting was held at
the BIA Fort Snelling office.
Also present at the meeting were
Leech Lake Secretary-Treasurer,
Arthur "Archie" LaRose, District
Representatives Burton "Luke"
Wilson and Donald "Mick" Finn,
and Karen Pagel, Self Governance
Director, Leech Lake. The BIA officials present were Dee Springer,
Gene Virden, md Ken Reinfield,
Self Governance Specialist.
Bruce Johnson, a Leech Lake
Tribal member, wrote a letter to
the BIA asking for assistance in
obtaining the grant funding he
qualified for and was officially
awarded. Johnson resides in rural
Cass Lake in a substandard trailer
home. The grant funding flows
through the Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe (LLBO) general fund to
the Housing Authority/HIP Accounting department on behalf of
the grant recipients.
Despite the meeting being called
for one person, there were eight
others who also qualified in the
same grant funding cycle for
home replacement or renovation.
Roxanne LaRose was the only
other applicant who qualified r-
replacement housing. Her grant
was in the amount of $96,898 to
replace her existing dilapidated
home in rural Cass Lake.
During the meeting, Wilson
explained to the BIA officials
that he ordered the grant funding to Bruce Johnson's replacement home stopped, because he
already lives in a trailer home.
The Johnson brothers both stated
Wilson told the BIA officials that
Bruce Johnson deserves to live in a
dilapidated trailer, however, Gene
Virden, informed the Press/ON
that he did not hear anything like
that said at the meeting. Virden
also stated the meeting was not
as contentious as he thought it
would be.
Wilson also questioned what
happened to the $20,000 funding already provided to Roxanne
LaRose (Secretary-Treasurer
LaRose's mother). Wilson promised to provide the Press/ON with
documentation that $20,000 was
disbursed via contract to David Jones to begin working on
LaRose's rural Cass Lake home.
The home was gutted, but no other
work has been completed. To date,
the Press/ON has not received the
documentation.
In a statement by Gene Virden,
BIA-Bemidji, on August 24,2005,
they are satisfied that the $279,235
is not missing. He stated they received audited financial statements
dated June 30,2005 that show the
HIP account has a balance of over
UPDATE to page 5
VOICE      OF      THE       PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
More Native students take the ACT
Average scores stay the same
By Jean Pagano
More Native American students
took the ACT (American College
Test) in 2005 than previous years.
In fact, 9.5% more Native students
took the test this year as compared
to 2004. The average ACT score
for Native students was 18.7. The
highest possible ACT score is 36.
While the number of test takers increased dramatically over the
previous year, the average scores
for Native students have effectively remained the same over the last
three years. Average ACT scores
for Natives were 18.8 in 2004
and 18.7 in 2003. The scores do
represent a drop, however, from
composite Native averages in
2002 which were 20.1.
The national average for all students is 20.9, which is similar to
the national average recorded last
year. Nationally, Asian-Americans
scored the highest with 22.1, followed by whites at 21.9, Puerto
Ricans at 18.9, Native students at
18.7, Mexican-American at 18.4,
and African-Americans at 17.0.
Statistics indicated that nationally, Native students who took
more difficult courses fared
better on the ACT. Those students who were better prepared
academically scored on average
20.1 whereas the students that did
not take more challenging classes
averaged 17.4.
Forty-seven percent of Native
students who matriculated the
ACT took the recommended core
classes: four years of English,
three years of math, science, and
social studies. The ACT measures
abilities in of English, math, science, and reading.
In Minnesota, 202 Native students took the ACT test, achieving
a composite average of 20.0. The
average score for English was
18.8, whereas the average score
for mathematics was 19.2. Science scores averaged out to 20.6
and reading composite scores
were 20.9. When compared to
other ethnic groups in Minnesota,
Native students finished behind
whites with 22.6, Mexican-Americans with 20.9, Asian-Americans
with 20.7, Puerto Ricans with
20.4, and finished in front of
African-American students, who
had a score of 17.6.
When Minnesota Natives were
grouped by grade point averages
(GPA), students who earned a GPA
of 3.50 to 4.00 (48 students) had a
composite score of 22.9; those between 3.00 and 3.49 (44 smdents)
had 19.5; 2.50 to 2.99 (39 smdents)
had an 18.9 average; 2.00 to 2.49
(24 smdents) had 17.7; and those
with a GPA of 1.99 and lower (13
smdents) averaged 17.3.
Another statistical measure offered by ACT allowed smdents
to predict their college GPA. For
those smdents predicting 3.5 to 4.0
(32), the average ACT score was
ACT to page 5
Native ,**-,
man
Press
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2005
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 10
August 26, 2005
Cass County Board approves Cass
Lake downtown Streetscape Projejct
Cass County Board approves $1,000,000 in funding to build and repair
roads in Federal Dam. The city of Federal Dam received $800,000 from
a federal transportation bill and the County must match $200,000.
Photo by Diane \
View of Cass Lake Main Street. The Cass County Board of Commissioners approved the Cass Lake
Streetscape Project set to begin in 2008. The project received $1,500,000 in federal funding this year.
By Diane White
Remer, MN—On August
16, 2005, the Cass County
Board approved two projects
presented by County Engineer, Dave Enblom, which
included $1,000,000 in new
road construction for the
City of Federal Dam and the
$1,500,000 Cass Lake downtown Streetscape project.
The Cass County Board of
Commissioners are: Jim Dem-
gen, District 1, Robert Kangas,
District 2, Jeff Peterson, District 3, James Dowson, District
4, and Virgil Foster, District 5
and the City Administrator is
Robert Yochum.
The city of Federal Dam will
receive an $800,000 federal
grant for which the County
has to match $200,000 in local funding to build the new
streets. The existing streets are
in bad need of repair if they
have pavement, otherwise
they are skinny dirt roads in
very poor condition.
The city of Cass Lake
Streetscape project has been a
long time in the making. The
Miracle Group commissioned
landscape architects and planners, Rose and Associates of
Bemidji, to prepare a conceptual design for the project.
Rose and Associates worked
with the Miracle Group and
local citizens to visualize the
revitalized town.
The funding of $1,500,000
is through a federal transportation
bill and the area of revitalization
stretches from the Forest Service
office on the east to the old high
school property on the east, and
north along Grant Utley to Highway 2 and focuses on the primary
right-of-way corridor.
The second street corridor includes one block west and five
blocks east of Hwy. 371. The corridor length from the intersection
of Hwy. 2 along Grant Utley is 3.5
blocks. With the exception of the
2nd street block immediately west
of Trunk Highway 371, ait streets
are currendy designated for reconstruction by 2006.
According to Enblom, the County
Engineer, the project will begin in
two to three years. The city_also requires additional funding to rebuild
the sewer and plumbing systems in
the reconstruction area.
The goal ofthe Streetscape project is to angle parking in the retail
core area of downtown on one side
of 2nd Street; reduce curb cuts and
to add new sidewalks, ornamental
street lights, street trees, planters,
benches, bicycle stands, trash containers, and quality signage.
At Hwy. 371 and 2nd Street
intersection and at Hwy. 2 and
Grant Utley, there will be two
Gateway features which may
include artistic sculptures, seating
areas, and/or plant beautifica-
tions. Cultural symbols, custom
landscaping and tasteful signage
are also highly recommended in
these two areas.
The project was spearheaded by
the Miracle Group in Cass Lake.
UND officials take hope from
Florida nickname ruling
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - University of North Dakota officials
are encouraged by the NCAA's
decision to allow Florida State
to use its Seminoles nickname
in postseason play.
"It appears they've set a
precedent that we feel pretty
good about," said Phil Harmeson, a senior associate to UND
President Charles Kupchella.
The NCAA removed Florida
State from a hst of 18 colleges
with American Indian nicknames that it had restricted
earher this month. Based on the
NCAA ruling, teams on the hst,
including UND, may not host
NCAA postseason tournaments or
use the American Indian imagery in
NCAA tournaments after Feb. 1.
The association said Tuesday it
recognized the relationship Florida
State has with the Seminole Tribe
of Florida. It also said it would
handle reviews from other schools
on a case-by-case basis.
North Dakota tribes have been
split over the Fighting Sioux nickname. The Spirit Lake tribe, which
is nearest the UND campus, has
supported it, while the Standing
Rock tribe has opposed it.
"That's something the NCAA
will probably have to deal with
UND to page 6
NCAA may bow
if tribes support
schools
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - Two
weeks after saying schools that use
American Indian nicknames, mascots or imagery to represent their
athletic teams could fact NCAA
sanctions, the governing body of
college sports seems to be softening its stance _ but only for those
schools who have the cooperation
of tribes.
On Friday NCAA officials
said that approval from American
Indian tribes will be a "primary
factor" in deciding appears from
NCAA to page 7
Appeals court
says Indian
activist can be
prosecuted by
Navajo
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court has mled that
American Indian activist Russell
Means can be prosecuted in a
Navajo tribal court even though
he's not a tribal member.
Means, an Oglala-Sioux,
is accused of threatening and
battering his then-father-in-law
and threatening another man in
December 1997 while visiting
ACTIVIST to page 7
Looking Cloud conviction upheld
in slaying of AIM activist
By Chet Brokaw
Associated Press
PIERRE, S.D. - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the
murder conviction of Arlo Looking Cloud in the 1975 execution-
style slaying of American Indian
Movement activist Anna Mae
Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation.
Looking Cloud received a
mandatory life sentence after a
jury convicted him last year of
first-degree murder committed in
the perpetration of a kidnapping.
He could qualify for parole after
10 years.
He argued that he should get
a new trial because the judge
let the jury hear irrelevant and
prejudicial evidence, his lawyer
made mistakes and there was not
enough evidence to support his
conviction.
However, a three-judge panel
of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said there was sufficient
evidence for a jury to conclude
that he took part in the murder.
The court also rejected Looking
Cloud's other arguments.
Looking Cloud's lawyer, Terry
Gilbert of Cleveland, said further
appeals likely will be pursued.
"This is a setback, but it's not
AIM to page 7